***E.C. BALL of Rugby, Virginia, drove a school bus, ran a service station, and, with his wife ORNA, made some of the most joyful, eerie, affecting, and enduring traditional country music around. First recorded by JOHN A . LOMAX for the Library of Congress in 1937, they sang ballads, comic songs, and mountain gospel music on records and the radio in a style entirely their own. Face A Frowning World is a tribute to the music of E.C. and Orna Ball, and a thirty-year memorial to E.C., who died in 1978. Played in large part by the HEALTH & HAPPINESS FAMILY GOSPEL BAND of Louisville, Kentucky, with vocal performances by BONNIE PRINCE BILLY, JOLIE HOLLAND, JON LANGFORD, MICHAEL HURLEY, HANDSOME FAMILY, DAVE BIRD, CATHERINE IRWIN, and others.